Handmade Life: Lover of All Things Handmade

Making a Stitch Book

Having finished the main modules of the course I found myself with 24 loose samplers and a load of notes so working my way through the bonus materials I found the guidance on making a stitch book. I thought it made sense as I’m not the tidiest person so it would keep them all together but also if I’m going to keep this up I thought it would also make sense to have some sort out system for finding the samples I need quickly.

To make a stitch book you need

Around 10 x pieces of fabric which you use to make the pages and covers – I used some old scraps, including an old bed sheet that my mum had given me. Sue suggested a size of 21 x 30cm which I followed for one but for the other I went a bit smaller at 20 x 23cm

A piece of materials to make the spine this should be the same length as you pages and around 10cm wide.

1 x piece of fabric to make a pocket – this is useful for storing your notes. If you plan to put a notebook in the pocket you’ll need to use fairly sturdy fabric for the book itself.

A piece of fabric to make a front cover label

Ruler, scissors, pins, needle and thread

You start by cutting the pages to size and once complete attach your samples with a simple, single stitch at the two top corners – this is so you can remove easily if needed but also so you can still view the reverse of the work.

Then you lay your pages on top of each other, including your front and back cover, making sure they line up at the spine and pin them together.

Then taking your spine fabric you lay it on the back of the book flush to the spine and sew with running stitch about 2cm in from the edge.

When you’ve sewn the back peel the fabric over the stitching and attach to the front, making sure to turn it in so you get a neat, hemmed join.

To make the pocket you double fold the top and hem, neatly with running stitch then turning the other sides in attach directly to the back cover, leaving the top open to form a pocket so you pop your notes in later.

I attached a label to the front of each book and as I’d sorted my samples by techniques the first was “hand stitch techniques” and the second “weaving and applique”

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